How HomeServe cut complaints by 37% with customer feedback
HomeServe provides plumbing, heating, drainage, and electrical repairs to millions of homeowners in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. It made customer feedback the primary voice of the customer across the business, from engineers in the field to the board.
01The starting point
Background: a customer-first culture built on frontline feedback
A culture built around the customer, from the frontline to the boardroom.
HomeServe set out to put the customer first across the whole business. Everyone, from contact center agents to engineers visiting homes, can see the feedback on the service they provide, in real time. Outstanding comments are celebrated company-wide, and the feedback score is important enough that bonuses depend on it.
The program has captured more than 2.1 million pieces of feedback, complaints to trading standards fell by 96%, and when HomeServe took it to the United States, it reached 99% customer satisfaction there.
Reduction in complaints to trading standards in the United Kingdom.
02What changed
Text analytics: one taxonomy for feedback, speech analytics, and complaints
One language for every source of customer insight.
The chief operating officer chaired a strategic program to improve four touchpoints: existing claims and complaints, claims handling, field operations, and central operations. HomeServe already had a mature speech analytics taxonomy, aligned with its complaints categories.
Through regular reviews, the Rant & Rave topic structure was rebuilt to match how HomeServe customers actually speak. More than 1,000 unique words and phrases are now mapped, so feedback, speech analytics, complaints, and operational data tell one consistent story.
Unique words and phrases in the shared topic structure.
From the frontline to the boardroom, we've seen brilliant engagement with the Rant & Rave Platform. The feedback we capture is invaluable in helping us to ensure we put the customer at the heart of everything we do.
03Making it visible
Employee engagement: sharing customer feedback across the business
Feedback in stand-ups, one-to-ones, and the engineers' magazine.
When HomeServe offered free repairs to National Health Service staff during the pandemic, a wave of positive feedback followed. The team shared scores and comments, naming the agents and engineers they were about, on the internal social network. The posts drew more than 14,000 views and became a company-wide routine.
Feedback now runs through daily stand-ups, one-to-ones, recognition and rewards, a monthly review with the senior leadership team, and a dedicated section in the magazine sent to every engineer.
Views of feedback posts on the internal social network.
04The result
The result: 37% fewer complaints and a higher customer effort score
Less effort for customers, fewer complaints.
When the program started, the average effort score was 7.8. Using the insight to fix processes raised it to 8.1. HomeServe tracks the share of 0 to 2 scores as its measure of dissatisfaction, which fell by 22%, and complaints fell by 37%, supporting retention and loyalty.
Next, more than 600 engineers will receive their own scores each week as part of a balanced scorecard.
Average effort score, where higher means less effort for the customer.
HomeServe results at a glance
HomeServe provides home emergency cover and repairs in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. In the United Kingdom its membership business is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so complaints and customer outcomes are closely watched.
| Measure | Before | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Customer complaints | Baseline | 37% fewer |
| Dissatisfaction (scores of 0 to 2) | Baseline | 22% lower |
| Average customer effort score | 7.8 | 8.1 |
| Complaints to trading standards | Baseline | 96% fewer |
| Feedback captured | Not measured | 2.1 million pieces |
How to run a program like HomeServe’s
- Survey every claim and visitAsk for a score and a comment after each claim, call, and engineer visit.
- Build one taxonomyMap the words customers use into one topic structure shared by feedback, speech analytics, and complaints data.
- Track effort, not only satisfactionUse a customer effort score to find the processes that make life hard for customers.
- Put feedback in front of peopleShare named praise in stand-ups, one-to-ones, and internal channels, and give engineers their own weekly scores.
Voice of Customers runs every step on one platform, from the survey to the follow-up.
Rant & Rave has supported the creation of our Customer Experience strategy aimed to improve the HomeServe end-to-end customer journey. The insight provided us with a clear view of our customers' expectations of our products and services and where we needed to improve at each touchpoint.
What they use
The parts of Voice of Customers behind HomeServe’s results.
Every module runs on one platform, with surveys by text message, email, voice, and web form, a sentiment engine that reads every comment, and follow-up that gives each unhappy customer an owner.
- Feedback after every claim and visit
- Custom topic structure
- Frontline Engagement
- Discover reporting
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Get the HomeServe case study as a two-page PDF.
The results, the charts, and how they did it, in a format you can forward to your team or bring to a budget meeting.
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Bring one journey you want to hear more about, such as a repair, an appointment, or a support call. We will show you the survey, the dashboard, and the follow-up built around it.